Review of Nightmare: Dreamcatchers

[blankd]

Nightmare: Dreamcatchers is by travis_capistrant
Read it here!

Breakdown of the review, First Impression ("not graded"), Art, Story/Plot, World, Characters, Tech/Misc. Scale of 1-5, 1 = low, 5 = high, a * in the score box means I can't rate it for whatever reason. A ~ followed by text denotes a suggestion I feel will be helpful to the author/artist. I write this review in a way that addresses both the author/artist AND someone who is simply reading reviews. If the author/artist wishes for clarification on any part of the review or feel some portion of the evaluation was unfair, feel free to voice it so that I may clarify or possibly rectify evaluation as need be.

First Impression: On the comic profile itself there is no summary or any info. I'd recommend at least putting a general rating, genre or some form of summary to help give readers a gist of what they're getting into. I only know from your forum summary what I was getting into, but some readers will actually skip something because there is no hint of what it is beyond the title. It's not required but it helps.

Art: The art is a nice change of pace, aiming for a more "realistic" style with horror and surreal undertones. However the lines seem a bit shaky, and I'm hazarding a guess that this may have been intended but the strokes themselves could be improved. The black and white are usually nicely contrasted for the mood however the shading/grays are a bit muddled and this muddiness does not seem intentional.

~You have a decent foundation but you still have to work on a few things. The characters have an "Uncanny Valley" effect going on but this can be refined with practice. The issues with lines and shading will also improve with time, so keep at it and maybe stop by the this section for feedback or some things to help refine your search for improvement.
3/5

Story/Plot: The plot is fairly simple, a specialist of the subconscious is employed to solve problems which manifest in the dreams of various people. Since there are only 14 pages (as of posting this) there is only one "story" up but it is a broad enough subject to create tons of short and long arcs with it. I personally like the idea explored in the first "arc" about the thin line between fighting and becoming the Nightmare. However around the beginning the main character seems to confuse himself with suffering to the real world and the dream world (however since this is still early on this can be easily fixed and may in fact be a "tech" error rather than a story one).

~This is a subject that many have used but still has plenty to explore. I'm unsure if the focus will be on that particular agent or simply the nature of Nightmares (Maras) or something else but given the format I'm sure it can be kept sweet and simple.
3~4/5

World: The only world explored in notable detail would be the girl's nightmare, it is fairly tame as far as nightmares go, but then again dreams have a whole variety of ranges. Dream exploration isn't a new concept but it isn't a bad one. I was expecting more surrealism given that it is a younger girl, but that isn't much of an objective criticism. I would also like to learn more of Maras and the organization but I assume it will be explored in due time.

~Try to have the dreams have lots of variety but don't burn yourself out on them. It's better to have a few dreams of thoughtful variety than a ton with no rhyme or reason. I would recommend looking up other "Nightmare" based creatures to help with the process as well as look into the productions of those under psychological examination/care for inspiration.
3~4/5

Characters: The agent (whose name I don't recall ever being mentioned?) is a fairly average protagonist but his methodology was interesting (taking on the guise of superman) and I thought it was a nice touch for him. I'm unsure if it was intentional or not but if one so chooses to look into what guise he chose before "becoming the nightmare" there are some interesting parallels there.

~He isn't outstanding so far but he has the potential to be a rather charming character should he be used again. However if future issues shall simply be "one shots" or simply feature "one shot" characters, there isn't a lot for me to provide feedback on until I see more.
*/5

Tech/Misc.: The one thing I have to point out that utterly hurt the comic would be the way the text and text bubbles are handled. the font itself is just small enough to be difficult to read and the S's look like 6's for some reason. Another would be how the text itself is paced, most of the text bubbles/boxes were filled to the brim with text, while some of the information was necessary for text other parts of it weren't. There were also some grammar errors, but I'm unsure of it they are actually there or if the text is playing tricks on me.

~Pace the text better or trim it down. PLEASE GET A BETTER FONT.
1/5

Nightmare: Dreamcatchers has potential but is still pretty rough around the edges. It's only truly "bad" component is the way it's text is physically handled. If the artist of the team is willing, putting some time into the Creative Forum will help him immensely. You're doing a good job, you just need some time to grow and polish it more.
Overall: 3/5

[Elastikid]

I posted my own review before I saw that Blankd had posted one. But hey, twice the feedback

First Impression: On the comic profile itself there is no summary or any info. I'd recommend at least putting a general rating, genre or some form of summary to help give readers a gist of what they're getting into. I only know from your forum summary what I was getting into, but some readers will actually skip something because there is no hint of what it is beyond the title. It's not required but it helps.

I didn't even think of that, but it's a good idea!

You have a decent foundation but you still have to work on a few things. The characters have an "Uncanny Valley" effect going on but this can be refined with practice. The issues with lines and shading will also improve with time, so keep at it and maybe stop by the this section for feedback or some things to help refine your search for improvement.

I didn't really notice this, but looking back I suppose the faces could use some improvement.

Story/Plot: The plot is fairly simple, a specialist of the subconscious is employed to solve problems which manifest in the dreams of various people. Since there are only 14 pages (as of posting this) there is only one "story" up but it is a broad enough subject to create tons of short and long arcs with it. I personally like the idea explored in the first "arc" about the thin line between fighting and becoming the Nightmare. However around the beginning the main character seems to confuse himself with suffering to the real world and the dream world (however since this is still early on this can be easily fixed and may in fact be a "tech" error rather than a story one).

~This is a subject that many have used but still has plenty to explore. I'm unsure if the focus will be on that particular agent or simply the nature of Nightmares (Maras) or something else but given the format I'm sure it can be kept sweet and simple.
3~4/5

World: The only world explored in notable detail would be the girl's nightmare, it is fairly tame as far as nightmares go, but then again dreams have a whole variety of ranges. Dream exploration isn't a new concept but it isn't a bad one. I was expecting more surrealism given that it is a younger girl, but that isn't much of an objective criticism. I would also like to learn more of Maras and the organization but I assume it will be explored in due time.

~Try to have the dreams have lots of variety but don't burn yourself out on them. It's better to have a few dreams of thoughtful variety than a ton with no rhyme or reason. I would recommend looking up other "Nightmare" based creatures to help with the process as well as look into the productions of those under psychological examination/care for inspiration.

You definitely have some good ideas here!

Tech/Misc.: The one thing I have to point out that utterly hurt the comic would be the way the text and text bubbles are handled. the font itself is just small enough to be difficult to read and the S's look like 6's for some reason. Another would be how the text itself is paced, most of the text bubbles/boxes were filled to the brim with text, while some of the information was necessary for text other parts of it weren't. There were also some grammar errors, but I'm unsure of it they are actually there or if the text is playing tricks on me.

~Pace the text better or trim it down. PLEASE GET A BETTER FONT.
1/5

I agree entirely. Also, I covered some of the grammatical errors in my review.

Nightmare: Dreamcatchers has potential but is still pretty rough around the edges. It's only truly "bad" component is the way it's text is physically handled. If the artist of the team is willing, putting some time into the Creative Forum will help him immensely. You're doing a good job, you just need some time to grow and polish it more.
Overall: 3/5

I gave the same rating but for slightly different reasons.

[travis_capistrant]

Thanks for all the feedback! This was very helpful.

When we begin another issue we will make sure to try and address the problems you've talked about.

Thanks for the link to help my art. I'm quite new to digital drawing, much more used to pen & ink, so I'm still getting used to using the stylis pen and how it functions in terms of varying line quality. Your comments on the character design and use of gray tones both are very helpful. I intend to really nail down the character's facial features before begining another issue to prevent the distracting variation.

The text is rather poor and we are looking into replacing it. Do you have any suggestions in that topic? Sites with numerous options, or software for making your own text?

The comic medium can be quite challenging sometimes. The interplay between text and images is infinetly interesting but very difficult as well. In time I know we will improve in this aspect.

Thanks again!

[blankd]

Thanks for the link to help my art. I'm quite new to digital drawing, much more used to pen & ink, so I'm still getting used to using the stylis pen and how it functions in terms of varying line quality. Your comments on the character design and use of gray tones both are very helpful. I intend to really nail down the character's facial features before begining another issue to prevent the distracting variation.

The text is rather poor and we are looking into replacing it. Do you have any suggestions in that topic? Sites with numerous options, or software for making your own text?

I don't know which program you use for making the pages so direct recommendations are a bit limited on my end, however this thread provided a good and (fairly free) database for fonts that I'm sure you'll find useful (a friendly reminder, please do not post in that thread as it's been dead for a while).

As for making your own font, it's a very long and (depending on person) difficult process that requires patience and some tech skills as well as additional programs (that cost money) to make it look good.

As for your art, you are more than welcome to start an art thread and request critique as you're practicing. We all want to help each other grow~